Shia LaBeouf Talks #ALLMYMOVIES and the True Meaning of Art

Last week, Shia LaBeouf sat down at New York City’s own Angelika Film Center and watched every title in his filmography in reverse with little to no breaks over the course of three days. The ambitious performance art piece drew crowds wrapping around the block who all wanted a chance to share in LaBeouf’s experience of his cinematic oeuvre. In his first interview since the project, titled #ALLMYMOVIES, LaBeouf, along with fellow organizers Rönkkö and Turner, sat down with Zach Verdin of NewHive and discussed the cultural and cinematic implications of the project.

While you can read the full interview on NewHive, here are some of the highlights.

On finally wrapping up his three-day movie marathon:

“I can’t articulate how big this was. I don’t even know yet. All I know is I feel the weight of it. I’m walking through the streets and I’m smiling, like a cartoon character…I felt extraordinary support… It’s the first time really in my life, before the other shows, because all of the other shows never changed my coffee order name. This shit changed my coffee order name, which in turn, changed my sense of self.” – LaBeouf

On the nature of performance art:

“We don’t want to intellectualize performance art. What we’re doing, we don’t even call it art, we just call it projects. The point is that it hits you, it hits you here, you don’t even have to be able to articulate it.” – Turner

On how everyone is an artist:

“You’re not born an artist, or everyone is. You’re not born an actor, or everyone is. It’s about drive, a dedication level to this very specific thing. Roofers, pizza guys, anyone can be an artist. Anybody who’s great at anything. Making pizza can be an art.” – LaBeouf

“We were getting pizza in London once and this guy had a massive ‘I love pizza’ tattoo on his neck. He was so dedicated.” – Rönkkö

“That guy is an artist. If you eat his pizza you get it. But you gotta eat the pizza.” – LaBeouf

On “Even Stevens”:

“‘Even Stevens Movie’ was interesting, it’s all of our childhood. It’s mine and it’s yours. It wasn’t just me smiling like that. If you look at the freeze frames, everyone is smiling like, wow, I remember Beans. I remember that stupid-ass song. We were all looking at our yearbook together and we’re all in the yearbook. It felt like family, we were sitting there like a high school class… The goal walking in is to highlight the connectivity of the networks. When you simplify it and take away all the art shit waffle talk, that’s really what it comes down to.” – LaBeouf

“We don’t add any art shit waffle talk.” – Turner

“One of the most interesting parts of the show for me was ‘Even Stevens,’ because that’s not my childhood. I didn’t know the show before meeting Shia, like two years ago. The room went crazy during that movie and just the atmosphere of the room made me so happy and feeling connected to everyone.” – Rönkkö

On the lesser entries in filmography:

“I think it started after ‘Lawless.’ When the movies started getting shit. I’m telling you. When the movies started getting shit and they knew that I felt it too, it was the shared secret that we all had…not just because I’m in it…I’m in the same boat as you, I’m a viewer in this and this is hard for me to watch too… ‘Transformers 2’ they could feel when I sunk in my seat. That’s not a performative thing. That’s me going through some kind of crisis. And I’m not the only one.” – LaBeouf

“We were all feeling it. There wasn’t one person in that movie who didn’t feel it.” – LaBeouf

On the end of #ALLMYMOVIES:

“When we all got through it, it wasn’t just an applaud for me…it was like this cool little pause in life where all of the hubbub and all of the Bzzzz of running around and the busy-ness and the phones shut down and everything got really intimate and quiet. For what reason? No one knows. We still don’t fully know. But it created something that is bigger than all of us, all of the movies and all of the crowd. It’s connection. We were all connected for that moment. More-so for this show, then any other show we’ve done.” – LaBeouf

“When the turbulence clears you even ask the guy next to you who doesn’t have any more information than you, ‘What the fuck was that?’ But you have this intrinsic human thing that’s going on…that’s my analogy for what went down, it’s the feeling after turbulence on an airplane when everyone looks around like, wow, we just did it.” – LaBeouf